Tea Party Nation founder disbarred for trying to scam timeshare owners
The founder of Tea Party Nation has been disbarred for trying to swindle timeshare owners into thinking they canceled their timeshares — and taking off with the money he earned from the fraudulent transactions, the Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled.
In all, more than 90 consumer fraud complaints were filed against Tennessee attorney Judson Wheeler Phillips, a senior partner with Nashville-based Castle Law Group and founding member of the conservative Tea Party group. Federal lawsuits were also filed against Phillips by Westgate Resorts and Orange Lake Resorts, both based in Orlando, as
well as Las Vegas-based Diamond Resorts and Fort Lauderdale-based Berkley Resorts.
The Supreme Court of Tennessee disbarred Phillips last month, following intense backlash from timeshare companies who claimed the lawyer was working with marketing companies to go after their timeshare owners around the country with pitches to cancel their timeshares. The law firm, Castle Law, would charge timeshare owners a fee for the service, typically with a $7,500 retainer fee paid up front, according to the Westgate complaint.
According to Orange Lake Resorts, the marketing companies would also split the fees with Phillips, who would send a letter to the timeshare company requesting it stop all communication with the owner.
That allowed the marketing companies and Phillips to keep the fees and the timeshare owner to wrongly believe they were free of their timeshare agreements, the complaints said.
“We take an aggressive approach when it comes to protecting our owners from companies and lawyers that prey on consumers,” said Tom Nelson, president and CEO of Orange Lake Resorts, in a news release. “In most cases, these fraudulent groups charge exorbitant fees and instruct owners to stop payment on their contractual obligations, placing them in additional financial peril.”
The timeshare companies allege Phillips obtained thousands of clients through referrals from marketing companies.
In its decision, the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee said, “Mr. Phillips consented to disbarment because he could not successfully defend himself on charges alleged in a Petition for Discipline that included 18 disciplinary complaints and 91 additional pending disciplinary complaints.”
Phillips’ consent to disbarment is under seal in the court. He could not be reached for comment.
In recent years, timeshare companies have targeted attorneys and marketing companies, often called thirdparty exit firms, for interfering with their clients and promising to get them out of their timeshares. The lawsuits from Westgate and Orange Lake against Phillip’s Castle Law Group, for instance, are still pending.